Something I've been wanting to do since our return from The Most Amazing Summer Road Trip Ever is to put together a list of our favorite spots/sights/cities/states/parks/drives, etc. We did not see everything we wanted to on this trip.

As a lot of you know, we recently returned home from a 6,800-mile journey in our new-to-us RV. We made a large circle around the western portion of the United States in 40 days. The four of us and our puppy had the time of our lives.

We covered 6,747 miles in 40 days on our recent RV trip around the western United States. It was a whirlwind trip so of course it came with its share of learning moments. We have been compiling a mental list of RV-related tips and we'd love to share them..

Day one of Summer Adventure aftermath was a tough one for me, yikes! I've never done well with aftermaths. Whether it's a good or bad major event that occurs, I always struggle big time for a chunk of time following.

Holy cow, people, we are BACK HOME! I knew it would be strange to be back, but I didn't realize just how strange. We drove by our old exit as we pulled into town and Dan and I both had major pangs of sadness/weirdness.

Aaaahh, another day spent in the serenity of Iowa. Iowa can be such an easy target with its pigs and cows and corn, but it'll always be my home. I love the endless corn fields and crickets and fireflies and open spaces. I'm sitting here at our LAST bonfire..

I'm a day late again! We are having a hard time tearing ourselves away from family and friends, which is a good problem to have. Yesterday we arrived in Spirit Lake and were greeted by my dad's side of the family.

I'm a day late because last night was too much fun to do work. We had a looooong travel day yesterday, which was made longer because of the grueling Nebraska scenery. We were happy to arrive at my friend Heather's house in the afternoon.

I apparently had not learned much or anything at all about the Royal Gorge before today because everything I learned was news to me. What an amazing place! Not only was it the perfect touristy thing for us to do as a family today..

Today was a strange one. We woke up knowing we didn't have to do anything and it was obvious that every single one of our bodies and minds needed a day of rest. Even though we were parked all day, we hardly left our RV.

As we drove into the mountains today all of the short-temperedness and impatience I'd been feeling for the past week or so vanished. Some people are hot/desert people and...I AM NOT. I am a fair-weather gal, I'm discovering. I like being on the cool side, which is probably why I love living in Minnesota.

I feel like we drove through about twelve separate worlds today. For the 200 miles that it took us to drive up through eastern Utah, we saw forests, large mountains, rolling hills, red rocks, white rocks, brown rocks, canyons, deserts, vast expanses, rocky hills..

It's so funny. Elijah is typically the first one in our family to complain about having to do any sort of work, but he is also the most adventurous of us all. He was SO EXCITED to go climb "our mountain" again this morning.

We have officially made the most stops in Arizona than in any other state. We traveled back through Flagstaff today and visited the same Wal-Mart we stopped at on our way to Williams. There was a forlorn-looking woman standing next to her car..

It is crazy that today, Day 27, is only the SECOND time we've spent three days in one spot. The last time was way back in Polson, MT, like a million years ago. Dan and I realize that, even though we plan to travel much more now that we own an RV..